The Psychiatrist
by DFIK
Summary: Ben Broulteski comes in for war counseling after a horrible experiance and tells his story... But there's something more... Rated PG13 for language, violence, gore, and dark thematic elements.


1-Day One-

Ben entered my room slowly, looking around, as if just waiting for something to jump him. I thought my room looked friendly enough. The nice clean blue walls, the new red fabric rug, my newly polished brown desk, and the nice white sitting couch for the patient. Although it may have been me who looked scary, not the room. I never took a very good look in the mirror. Who knows?  
Ben took a few short steps, looking frantically over his shoulder, every time he breathed heavily. Considering the weather, you would think little white puffs of smoke would come from within the warm mouth he had. However, the heating in this room particularly was quite nice. It almost seemed like summer.  
"Please," I said calmly. "Please, sit down. Your Ben right? Ben Broulteski?"  
Ben nodded gently and quickly took a seat on the white couch. The fabric pushed down as he sat. Ben, about 18 I thought, was about 210 lbs. His rough beard was only just beginning… more of a 5 o'clock shadow. He wore tethered jeans… not like a marine, I thought to myself, and a black t-shirt with nothing on it. He wore a baseball cap too… a blue one. His shoes were a bright blue, kind of one of those "Look at my shoes, aint they great?" types.  
"Now…" I said calmly again, remembering my training. "Do you know why you're here?"  
Ben looked at me with bloodshot eyes. His white skin wrinkled around his forehead, and he nodded, ever so gently.  
"Well, do tell." I said. This Ben character looked very feverish, as if he had just seen his entire family ripped to shreds by some mass murderer… then again, for all I knew he did… But that wouldn't be why he was here.  
"Er…" He slumped his head down on his shoulders and began to stare at the red fabric rug.  
"Well?"  
"Er… well… I uh…" This was obviously going nowhere.  
"You are here because you could not handle what you saw out there." I said without taking a breath. "You could not handle the Zerglings, the Hydralisks, the marines being ripped to shreds. You, my friend, could not take this. You could not handle the merciless actions of the Zerg. You are here, because you need to talk to someone. And that's where I come in. I'm the Psychiatrist. You talk to me. You let it all out here."  
Ben looked at his shoes, dismayed. I took a deep breath, and stood up.  
"Now," I began, walking toward him, slowly, as not to upset him. "I'm here to help you. Everything you do and say inside here is confidential. You're not in any trouble. Now please, tell me what happened. Tell me what you saw, that made it so you could no longer handle it."  
Ben sighed deeply and stared into my eyes, pleading. I could tell he wanted out, and he wanted it now.  
"I'm sorry," I said, walking back to my desk. "But you have to tell me. If you don't, and stay as crazy as you are now, General Mengsk's orders are to have anyone in your situation killed. Now…" I laughed. "I know that didn't sound too friendly, but I had to put it blunt. You either tell me the story, or you die. It's as simple as that. You can choose which ever you want."  
Ben once again stared. His eyes, blue eyes, were pleading again. I could see tears swelling up in those big blue eyes. His face was dirty, and he looked sheepish.  
"Please," I said. "I don't want you to die either. I'm the good guy."  
He wept. He put his dirty hands to his eyes, and bawled it out. The tears rolled out of his eyes like a waterfall, as if to never stop. But they did.  
"No…" He cried, his first real word in my room, "I can't… I don't want too…"  
"You must." I calmly told him. I felt bad for this poor man. Either he went through a lot more than the others did, or he was just really emotional. Either way, I felt a sort of pity rise in my heart."Well… I…I… I don't know where to start…" He said, wiping a few tears from his eyes, with those dirty hands.  
"Start at the beginning." I laughed. He made a sort of pathetic giggle, and stopped crying. Once the tears stopped rolling, the mood in the room got a lot better. It seemed brighter, and more efficient.  
"Okay…" He mumbled to me, softly. "I'll tell you my story."  
"Good. Thank you." I said to him, smiling, trying to comfort this pitiful man.  
"It began about… uh, what day is it?"  
"Tuesday."  
"Oh, thanks. It began about two months ago, around Monday I believe. The Sergeant had set the Alpha squad, my squad, to go see what was happening to Delta. We had lost contact with them two days earlier.  
"Anyway, when we began our search, we almost immediately knew something bad was going to happen. The radio tower shut down five minutes into the search. The fifteen members of our squad, including me wanted to go back. But, as we all knew, if we did, our asses would be going straight into that there jail cell.  
"So, we went on. I marched next to a buddy of mine, maybe you've seen him? Ray McVries? He's dead now, but still…"  
"No," I said to Ben, "I don't' believe I've ever had him in this room."  
"Yeah," Ben smiled. "He was probably the most sane guy in Alpha. Anyway, he said to me 'You know what I think happened to Delta?' I says no, and he replied 'I betcha that it wan' even the Zerg. I bet you that damn Confederacy found'em and ripped um up.'"  
"Heh," I laughed. "You either have a good memory or you're a good improv artist."  
"Good memory," Ben said, knocking his head gently with a bawled up dirty fist. "Anyhoo, we kept on walking. We searched for about three days… three days of the hot, hot sun. The radio towers wasn't up yet, and still no contact with the Sergeant or anyone for that matter. But we kept on walking.  
"It was… say, two weeks, before we got to the last known location of Team Delta. When we got there, we did see some footprints that went on foreword. So we followed um. 'You know,' says Ray 'I bet you THEY had a vulture with them, and didn't all walk on foot like us suckers. See? There's a vulture track.' And sure enough, there was one.  
"We kept on walking. We walked another week before we found anything remotely interesting. The vulture cycle tracks lead off in a different direction than the footsteps did.  
"Now, that was a predicament. Not only did we not have radio contact with H.Q. yet, but also OUR radios weren't working either. We couldn't separate and keep in contact."  
"Wow," I said, "That is a predicament. What did you guys do?"  
"I was getting there," He said to me, "So hold on. Anyway, we decided to vote on it. 15 was an odd, number, so we could do it. We voted on whether to follow the footsteps or the vulture track-"  
"Why didn't you separate?" I asked.  
"Why?" He said, staring at me. "I already told you why. We had no radio contact, so we couldn't keep in touch. We had all agreed that we weren't going to separate. This was no horror movie, we weren't idiots, we were gonna stick together, buddy. So, Anyhoo, after voting like grade school children with the raising of hands, we decided to follow the footsteps. I had voted on the Vulture tracks, because I wanted to know what it was even doing there, all alone. But, we went after the footsteps. Ray had said to 'We should follow the footsteps Ben, so if by some miracle they're still alive we can save more people.' After I thought that over, I had agreed with him.  
"However, the four hours we spent debating this topic was a waste, because the vulture had went off to scout on the side or something because when we went on, we saw that about one mile ahead, it met up with the footsteps again. 'Huh,' Ray laughed to me 'that was one fuck of a waste of time.' I agreed with him. Everyone did. He made it quite blunt, did he not?"  
"Yes, he did." I said to him. This story was semi- interesting, compared to the others I had heard. He was probably just over emotional. Oh well, nothing new and exciting here.  
"Of course things didn't stay so cheerful and action-less." Ben said, making a sad pitiful smile. I could see that soon enough, he was going to break down again. Something bad was going to happen soon in this story… I could sense it. Death. Death was coming soon.  
"Anyway…" Ben said, regaining his composure. He clonked his head, trying to jolt the memories back. Apparently it worked because two seconds later he went on, in his slightly raspy voice. "We followed for another day or two, I can't quite remember. That's when the footprints just stopped."  
"Stopped?" I asked, dumbfounded. "What do you mean they just, stopped?"  
"What ah mean," Ben said to me, "Is that they just stopped. As if they had evaporated. As if suddenly the marines had just… disappeared. The Vulture however, stayed there. Nice and put. There it was, a parked vulture just sitting right where the footprints stopped.  
"It didn't make much sense to any of us… 'How could they have just stopped?' says Ray to me. 'I-onno…' I had responded. The entire Alpha team was dumbfounded. That is, until some guy named JJ or something with a 'J' walked over to the last footstep. He just sank into the sand. And he was gone.  
"'My god!' yelled some guy to my left… I think his name was Johanson-something or other. The leader of our squad, lance corporal Nick Raynor, no relation to commander Jim, ran over to the hole and yelled to JJ-something. A voice came back.  
"'Help' it screamed to us. 'I think this is a Lurker hole!' And thus, it was."  
"A lurker hole?" I asked. "A LURKER HOLE? That's amazing. I've never heard of anyone falling into one of those… Aren't the holes visible?"  
"No," Ben said to me, "They're a lot like them spiders… I uh, don't know what they called but they're under ground and you can't see them. You get close enough they jump. That's kinda what a Lurker does, sept it shoots spikes at you."  
"Wow…" Now THIS was interesting. "Go on."  
"Well I would," Ben said agitatedly. "If you'd stop interrupting me."  
"Sorry-"  
"Ya!" Ben said, with a mean tone. "You better be sorry you stupid fuc- uh… I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I'm just…"  
"It's okay." I said to him, in a fatherly tone. "It's okay."  
"I think we're out of time." He said, pointing behind me to the large white clock on the blue painted wall.  
"Yeah…" I mumbled. "I guess we are. Next week. I wanna here more of this story."  
"Okay." He said, getting up from his seat, and smiling open mouthed. "It was really good to get this shit off my chest."

-Day Two-

Where was he? Ben was two minutes late for today's meeting. Did he back out? Was he afraid to return? And even if he did come, would he have another breakdown? Would he just simply not talk? Who knew? Was he even going to come?  
He did.  
When he entered the room, he was a good solid ten minutes late. Ben opened the white door with its little fogged up window on the top. He opened it, peaked his head through, and then walked in… not like last time however. He seemed more confident this time. That was good. That meant this was going somewhere.  
"Hi." He said to me. Ben smiled, and walked over to his patient couch. He looked different today… He had obviously taken a shower, and washed his cloths. He looked a lot cleaner. He wore no hat today; just his short brown crew cut sticking out, and instead of pants, he wore overalls. Under the tops of the overalls was a blank white t-shirt. He wore just plain brown boots today, no longer those "Look at my shoes, aint they great?" kinds. He looked more… well… I wasn't sure. He just looked more something… Friendly maybe?  
Sitting down on his white couch, he smiled to me again. Open mouthed. His yellow tinted teeth didn't exactly shine… but like I said before there was more of a friendly tint to this smile. It wasn't the pathetic one he had shown yesterday.  
"Well you seem better today." I said to him. He looked at me, and said: "Why yes, yes I do."  
"Why do you feel better?"  
"Because my story gets interesting soon… I did some great stuff back there."  
"Well if you did some great stuff why were you so hesitant to tell me the story."  
"You'll know why… later… For now, Let me just tell you the good parts, and hopefully we'll run out of time for my sake by then, and I can tell you the… horrible things, tomorrow."  
"Okay." I said to him. Ben lay back on his couch comfortably. The couch seemed to adjust itself for his comfort, as his weight shifted the fabric from side to side, every time he moved.  
"Alright… should I begin?" He asked. I nodded, and he continued. "Alright… I was at the Lurker hole right?" I nodded again. "Alright, so like I said, after Nick called for J-suttin, he responded and told us that it was a Lurker hole. And after a minute of investigation we found out that it WAS in fact a Lurker hole. Now here was where the question lay. Did the lurker hit them? Or is this hole old, and they sank in like poor old J-something. I'll just call him JJ. And the last question was why the vulture had parked.  
"Now, none of us up here could answer those questions. We were quite sure the marines didn't get hit up here, because if they did, there would be guts all over the place. So Nick called down to JJ 'Are there footsteps down there?' And sure enough, JJ replied 'Yeah! Just like up there! I didn't even see them till you asked me! Whoa! This hole is bigger than your momma Nick!' This slightly sarcastic remark helped us out. We knew that this didn't kill him. And that's why the Vulture stopped. It stopped to see what the fuck had just happened, and sure enough he fell right in to. At least, that was our educated guess. And by darn if you can find a better one, I'll dance like a monkey on your desk.  
"Anyhoo, we decided that what ever happened down in that hole, should stay in that hole. We weren't going down there. We would find a way to get JJ out, and then busta-move, if you know what I mean."  
"Good plan," I said. "But how could you get him out?"  
"Well," He began again. "We didn't have any rope. So, as frantically lost and running out of water as we were, we were stupid enough to make one of them human chains. You know, where we all hold hands and get lowered down. He grabs the first guys hand and we pull him up?"  
"Yeah, I know what you're talking about."  
"Well, hahaha, It worked like shit. The guy at the end had too much weight on him, and he lost us. We all slipped foreword, and now we lost another four guys. Ten up here, five down there. What a predicament. Nick and Ray were down there, along with three other guys. Well we were out of ideas. Like I said, we were all very thirsty. We were slowly losing our minds. We ran out of food that day, so we were hungry too. Plus, the radio towers STILL weren't up. I mean what the hell. Either that, or something was screwing up our location.  
"So then this guy yells from down there, it sounded like Nick, and he says: 'Guys! Come down here! There's water! WATER!' And we're just crazy enough to believe him. All ten of us. All freakin ten of us! We just fuckin dive-bombed into the sand, and we sank right in. Although we didn't have to be crazy to believe him… He wasn't lying! Sure enough there was like a fucking pond down there! It was great! We stayed down there the whole night… You'd be surprised how light it is, with all of us marines flashing our head and shoulder flashlights all over the place.  
"The next day, we decided to pack up some of this beautiful water, and then follow these damned footprints again. We did so. The footprints lead us to this big huge tunnel that seemed to go on forever. We all sighed at that, I'll tell you what. But we went on. And on. And on. And on… Just never stopping. There was no light at the end of this tunnel, because it seemed like there wasn't even an end. 'God damn, Ben, you think this things ever gonna end?' Ray asked me. I laughed at him and said 'No.' Hahaha, but it did, you know. About after seven hours of straightforward walking, the tunnel ended. It ended and it took a fucking load of us. We rested. The tunnel had led us to this giant like 1-mile wide 1-mile long room. It was just an undercover cave or something. The footprints told us that they had rested here too. It was amazing that after all this time the footprints hadn't died away. They were faded, they had always been faded, but they were nice and clear, you know? Like a gift from the Lord. Do you believe in Him, uh-what is your name?"  
"Hahaha," I laughed, then replied: "Not many people know my name. And your one of those not many people. I like to keep my last name confidential. My first name is David though. And yes, I do believe in God. I'm Jewish. Are you Christian?"  
"Yes."  
"Thought so. Go on."  
"Alright… now after we had rested for an hour, we went on. Following those goddamn footprints. They had to lead us somewhere, right? Well they did. Straight into Hell itself. But that's for another day. Now I gotta tell you the adventures in this 1-mile room.  
"Once we were half way through, someone decided to visit us. Guess who."  
"Zerglings?"  
"Bingo. Those little shitters jumped up from the tunnel ahead of us, and ran straight for us, screaming their fucking little heads off. The fifteen of us grabbed our Gauss rifles and pumped some lead into them. There were about seven Zerglings, so they were outnumbered, plus, a lot stupider than us. We owned them. They didn't even get close to us. However, we didn't hear the ones to our left until just then. They were about… say, four feet away. We shot frantically and ran to the right. A Zergling swung for one guy's leg, but missed, and it tripped itself. Flinging over backwards, it ram shackled the rest of them bastards. They all fell over. They tried gettin back up but we doused them with slugs. They didn't even have a chance that time. They all exploded in that red goopy slop, that's like blood mixed with corn syrup.  
"So, now we knew that we weren't alone down here. And we were also quite sure Delta was dead, because those bastards almost got us, and where they were they didn't have a 50 foot warning that the first bunch was after them. They were in that there tunnel up ahead. Most likely dead.  
"So, we kept on going. Following those footsteps like a dog on some biscuits scent. Following, following, following. That's all we freakin did. It seemed like it never stopped. Follow this, and follow that. But we followed.  
"About one-two days later in that tunnel we found some Zergling carcasses. They were dead, obviously. They just were sitting there, with bullet marks on the walls to our left and right. Oh, by the way, I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but the tunnels were usually about twenty-seven feet wide. It was good sized.  
"A bit farther down we saw a single dead hydralisk… and to our horror a dead man."  
"A what?" I asked, a bit shocked. "You mean they just left him there?"  
"Yeah," Ben said, looking down at the fabric red rug. "What else would they do? When we found that body all fifteen of us made a vow that if someone would die, there would be no burial. No salute. We would leave them, like they did. We would do what was necessary.  
"And that vow was put to use about four minutes later when another pack of Zerglings ran at us from ahead. We gathered around, and pumped some slugs into the shitters. One exploded, splashing the walls with its corn syrup-like blood. Another exploded, goring up the area. A third one and a forth one at the same time, like in unison, corrupted in gore and splattered the walls. A fifth one painted the ceiling. But there were three more. One more we managed to get. It painted us. The other two raised their razor sharp claws and gouged them inside of the Johanson-something or other guy. He screamed, and he soon, was dead. We made one more Zergling paint the wall, before somebody else got hit. Lance-corporal Nick Raynor Got a claw into his shoulder. As soon as the Zergling struck, I shot its fucking head off. It exploded, and I ran over to Nick. Removing the claw, he looked at me, thanked me, and then fell, not dead, but unconscious."  
"Wow…" I mumbled to myself. "This is getting good. Go on."  
"Good?" Ben asked me, staring, bloodshot again. "Good? How would you like it if I walked over to your Mother and shot her freaking head off. Would that be good?"  
"No-"  
"Well than Johanson dying aint good either, now is it? That was somebody's son. That may have been someone's husband or brother. Death isn't good, David. It's Hell. Pure Hell."  
I let this sink in. I mean, I knew what he meant, and I was sorry for saying such a heartless thing, but I made him think he put an impact on me. He did, sort of. I straightened my tie, as the awkward silence continued. Finally, it ended and Ben spoke.  
"I'm sorry… It's just that after all this; death has made a huge mark on me. It's like I've been branded… know what I mean?"  
I did.  
"It's time again… Time up…" Ben said to me, pointing once again to the huge clock behind me. I nodded in agreement, and he got up from his seat. He walked over to me, and shook my hand. "You have no idea… uh-… David, how good it is to get all this off my chest. Sorry I was late, today, I promise to be early tomorrow!" He smiled, walked to the door, opened it, and left.

-Day Three-

"Hello, and welcome back!" I smiled to Ben. He had come early, just as he'd promised. Five minutes early to be exact. He didn't look like the day before. He didn't look friendly at all. He wasn't dirty today… it was just that when he entered my room, the room seemed to get… sad. Sheer terror, more like it. His eyes were bulging and red, bloodshot. He looked pale around his face. Today he wore the tattered jeans again. The same brown boots from yesterday, and this time he wore a sort of leathery jacket. It was black with brown edges. He also wore gloves today. Black, cut at the finger gloves. He wore a hat, but not the same one from two days ago, one with yellow, black, and red on it, the colors of the Sons of Korhal.  
"Ben, are you alright?" I asked him. When I asked this he looked at me cautiously and sat on the patient couch, uncomfortably. He stared at me, his blue eyes seeming to swell with tears.  
"It's not very happy past this point… It gets… Horrible…" Ben said to me. His eyes, burning blue eyes, flamed with terror. Something bad had happened to him, something worse than I have ever seen before, or heard of before.  
"Well…" I began, picking my words carefully. "In order for…you to get over your… current situation…" Slowly, making sure I use my words correctly, I went on. "You must first, talk about it. Others must know, or hear, of what you've went through… It helps to let it out… When you keep it inside, it sort of… well… eats you up inside. Do you know what I mean, Ben?""Yes…" He mumbled to me.  
"Then please," I said, "Please, let it out. Let me help you in the only way I can. Let it out on me. Talk to me."  
"Okay…" Said Ben. "Hold on… where did I leave off last time?"  
"Um… I think it was when Mr. Johanson was killed, and then Nick passed out."  
"Oh, right," Ben nodded, in thought, re-catching his place. "Alright. So now Nick was out cold, Johanson-something or other was dead, and we didn't have a squad leader anymore. So, disgruntled, the group decided to appoint someone to be the current leader. We did a quick grade school children vote, with hands up-style. Ray McVries, my ol' buddy was put in to take Nick's place. 'Oh aint this great…' Ray says to me. 'Now I get to choose how we're slaughtered.' And he was probably right.  
"I didn't get much time to think about it though, because yet again, a group of Zerglings screamed at us, and ran to us. Only four this time. We blasted through them fuckas like an elephant smashing some paper. The poor little bastards didn't even have a chance. It was when the Hydralisk came that we were worried. Just out of nowhere from our right side, came this huge Hydralisk. You shoulda seen this fucker! This baby was at least seven feet tall, had scythes that looked like they could rip you to shreds with one swing, and a very venomous looking mouth. I could see the spikes dwelling within it, preparing to shoot out and slaughter us.  
"'Douse it!' came Ray's voice. And so we did. It raised its scythe in the air, and swatted at the JJ-guy. It missed him, and then decided to shoot a spike forward. It flung past my head, and ruptured the skull of some poor fucker behind me-"  
"Heyy Ben," I said interrupting him. "Please, hold down on the language a bit. Swears have always made me nervous… Some drunk that swore all the time killed my dad when I was only 10."  
"Oh," Said Ben. "Sorry 'bout that… Anyway, after it ruptured that poor bastards skull, the creature shot another spike. It missed everyone. It hit a rock behind us, and the rock fell. It covered up the exit of our tunnel. We were stuck in this little tunnel with a Hydralisk. A dead Hydralisk that is, because we shot its freaking head off a few moments later.  
"'So what now?' asked that JJ-guy. Ray was thinking hard. He was thinking so goddamn hard I'm surprised a blood vessel didn't pop in his head. I could see him tuning us al lout, thinking. He didn't need to though. We were all dead as shits anyway because once again some little shitters attacked from behind, about twelve little fuc-uh-Zerglings.  
"Blasting through six of them was easy enough. We shot their heads and legs and other body parts all over the walls. The stupid little things just kept coming. So now we had another six to go. Blasting off another two of them, into the wall, we began running back. The Zerglings came full pace toward us. Screaming… Screaming like they were walking on fire. I blasted one last ones head off when-"  
He stopped. His eyes seemed to jump from his head, and the tears rolled down again. He bawled, loud, and queasy. I stared, reluctantly. What was this? What was so bad that he couldn't stop?  
"When… when…" Ben was stuttering now. He stared at the clock behind me… still ten minutes to go, I thought, looking at my wristwatch. "When… please." He looked at me pleading. "PLEASE, don't make me say it! I can't… All I can say is everything got black… Real black… Please, I can't do it! I can't bear with it… not now… not today…"  
"You have to." I said to him, looking at my watch. Nine minutes now. He had nine minutes to go.  
"NO!" Ben screamed. He jumped up from his seat knocking over a vase that stood next to the chair on a wooden table. "NO! I-I-I have to go now! I'll talk tomorrow! I HAVE TO GO!" I jumped up and tried to stop him, but he ran to the door, ripped it open and ran through the hallway. I had to get him. I had to stop him.  
"Stop that man!" I screamed, jumping through my doorway, to the guards. The guards, big rough, and in their battle armor, plucked their arms foreword and grabbed Ben by the shirt. Struggling, Ben ripped the shirt in half, and jumped out the door. The two guards stared at me for further instruction. "It's okay…" I said to them. "He'll be back tomorrow. He better, anyway."

Days 4-6 Later…

-Day 4-

I sipped at my tea, staring at the door. My white door, just sitting there so innocently. I could have killed that door. "Open damn you! Open!" I thought-screamed to it. Yet to no avail. Maybe he wouldn't show. Maybe Ben would chicken out… But I had thought this before, and sure enough he had shown. I must show confidence in my patients.  
About 20 minutes late, sure enough, there he was. The bloodshot, scared-to-death Ben. Not the friendly Ben I had seen two days ago, the scared Ben. The Ben that made the room seem to sag down, and all happiness seem to quietly leave the room, ashamed to have ever existed.  
"H-Hi…" Ben said to me, doing his sad-walk toward the patient couch. I stared at him, for the millionth time trying to figure out what this man had seen. What he had been through to do this to him. It had to be horrible.  
"Hello Ben. Nice to see you today. I wasn't sure you were coming."  
"Yeah… I-uh- well… I was a bit hesitant to come. After yesterday… you know… I thought you might be a little mad…"  
"No." I said, smiling at him. "Not at all. After all, that's what you're here for right? Okay. Now, lets hear your story."  
"Where d-did I leave off?" He asked, sitting down on the couch. Today he wore his overalls again. His "look at my shoes aint they great" shoes were on again. He had a black hat on backwards, and his brown hair was slipping out of the front. He was also wearing a white t-shirt with a brown stain on it. Looked like a coffee stain.  
"I believe you left off at…" I paused momentarily, trying to remember. "You left off, when you blasted one of their heads off… I believe they're were 12 of them, 6 were gone, and then you blasted 2 more… Um… Let me think… And then you began running back-"  
"Oh, yes, right." Ben said quickly. "Okay. We started running back, I shot ones head off, like I had said, when suddenly I had realized something. Something horrible. Nick, still out cold, was lying five feet in front of me. The Zerglings were about seven or so feet in front. There was no time to save him. They were gonna rip him into little itty-bitty bite size pieces.  
"I kept on running back, tears rolling down my eyes like they did the first day I came here… I closed my eyes and kept on dousing my ammo into the little shitters. I heard one more explode before I opened my eyes. Nick was up, and shooting angrily. Apparently he had woken up within the last few seconds and had quickly gained his mind into what he should do… but to no avail. One of the Zerglings quickly shred him up, his body parts flying across the tunnel. His leg damn near hit me! HIS LEG, David, HIS LEG. You ever had a leg of a friend tossed at you? Didn't think so. I don't know how we all managed to go on after that. It didn't take long to finish off the last two Zerglings, and there we were, alone again. I can't remember… I think we had lost Johanson, Nick, umm… Some other guy… And I believe that was it. We had lost three men in total so far.  
"Now, Ray McVries was the leader of our little squad. For good, this time. Nick was dead, and it was up to him."  
"One second…" I said interrupting Ben, "I'm just trying to figure this out… Yesterday, that breakdown… was all about Nick?""Oh no…" Ben said, staring at me colder than a snowman. "Not at all… you haven't even begun to hear my horrors, David."  
I looked at him cautiously. He looked dangerous. He looked scary. He looked like he was about to rip out a knife and end it for me, right here and now. I waited for him to strike. But of course, he didn't. He went on.  
"Now the 12 of us were devastated. We were blocked off from the footsteps. We couldn't follow them anymore. Instead here we were stuck, at least two days into the tunnel, and even if we could go back, we'd just be stuck in that damn Lurker hole again.  
"Ray, being the smart guy he is, began to conduct a plan. I can't exactly remember it… sorry; my memory is pretty good at some points, and aint to bright in others… but anyway, we never got to use his plan. Because the worst possible creature you could imagine jumped into the room at that point.  
"No, it was no Zergling. It wasn't a Hydralisk it wasn't even an Ultralisk! For gods sake it was a…a…"  
He stopped. Ben looked at me, sadly. He sighed deeply, a sigh that seemed to blow out all his fear. This sigh gave him the strength to continue the sentence. "It was an infested terran."  
"WHAT?" I screamed, shocked. "Excuse me? I don't think I heard you correctly."  
"An infested terran…" Ben sighed again. I looked at him, questioningly. He went on.  
"It was a guy from Delta. That cleared up a few questions. I recognized him. His name was Mark Hopkinson. He was an old friend of mine from high school, I think. His face was still the man I once knew. He was staring at me, his eyes filled with tears. However, the rest of him was fully Zerg. There was nothing else human about him except his eyes. I knew that when they changed you from human to Zerg… they keep your mind.  
"It ran towards us, but no one fired a single shot. All 12 of us were completely dumbfounded. I mean, when I TOLD you what it was you were shocked. Can you imagine being one of us? Staring at it… just, staring."  
Ben stopped there, and looked at me, with his bloodshot, eyes. He was still looking evil. His face was a sad pathetic look, but he just looked… mad. Scary. Like he could just kill all of us on this planet right now, without a second thought. Like he would slash my throat, not thinking twice.  
"It ran at us," Ben continued. "It kept on runnin. It kept getting closer and closer. Not once did we shoot at it. We just couldn't comprehend what was in front of us. Who could? We had been prepared for a Zergling, a Hydralisk, an Ultralisk, but for God's sake, not an Infested Terran…"  
"You guys didn't shoot, all this time?" I asked him.  
"No," He said, tilting his head to the left, and scratching his nose. "No, we didn't."  
Something loud banged outside. And then a flash of light hit the room, a yellow light.  
"What was that?" I asked him.  
"Thunder…" He said, looking at me coldly. "Didn't you know there was a storm outside?"  
"No. I'm not aloud out of these building, Mengsk's orders. Well if it's raining why aren't you wet?"  
"I had a raincoat on." Ben laughed, shrilly. The lights flickered above our heads, and then they went back to normal. When the lights had flickered I noticed something.  
"Ben, do you have any…medical problems?"  
"I might." He said, staring… There was something about that stare.  
The lights flickered again. When they did, Ben's eyes did not dilate. "Ben," I said, looking at him, pondering. "You're blind, aren't you?"  
Ben tilted his head downwards creating a sort of shadow over his face. The lights flickered once more, and then went out, for good.  
"I haven't gotten to that part yet." Ben sneered, smirking. His face seemed almost pure evil. He definitely did not look right. Something was wrong."What do you mean, you haven't gotten to that part yet?" I asked, getting up from my seat for a flashlight.  
"What I mean," He snickered. "Is that I have not reached that point in my story yet."  
I looked at him questioningly. He pointed to the clock behind me. "Times up."  
Ben sat up. I clicked the flashlight on, and watched him leave the room. I sat down on my black padded chair. If he was blind, how did he know the time?

-Day 5-

Something went wrong. Mengsk had proclaimed him cured. He was not cured. I knew he wasn't. Something was wrong. Mengsk's orders were for me to not leave the building. Ha, like I was going to listen tot hat giant piece of cow dung.  
Leaving my room for the first time in two weeks, I entered the hall. The guards looked at me cautiously.  
"Sir, what is it you want?" One big armor buffed guard asked me. The room, in which I stood now, was bright red. The walls, the seats, even the rug, all red. The guards, both of their faces invisible behind the body armor, stood in place.  
"What I want is for you two, to get out of my way." I said, walking towards the door.  
A guard plucked his hand forward and stopped me from moving on, by pushing his cold, metal hand upon my chest.  
"I'm sorry sir, but by the laws sent to us by the Emperor himself is that you cannot exit the building at any point in time. Besides, you have a new patient today sir." The guard who was pushing me aside, said.  
"No." I said clearly. "I'm leaving this building. Something is wrong!"  
The guard kept on pushing me. I had to hear the story! I had to know what was going on! I… I had… NO! I HAD TO KNOW!  
"LET ME THE FUCK OUT!" I screamed. Both guards jumped in surprise of my scream, and I took advantage of the situation. While they were both still shocked, I opened the door quickly, and scrambled out. The guards, baffled, took a few seconds to realize what just happened, and also, scrambled out the door to chase me.  
"NO!" I yelled back to them. "I have to know!"  
One guard, the one who had been pushing me aside, caught up with me. He used his left arm to quickly push me. With the strength brought up from a battle suit, I went flying to the left. I hit the desert ground with a bang. My body seemed to lose all control of my left arm.  
I lay there, broken arm and all, screaming. "NO! I HAVE TO KNOW!"  
And then common sense hit me. What the hell was I doing? It was just one man, and his one story.

I woke up. I looked around me, a bit scared that I might see Mengsk himself ready to slit my throat. But it was just I. I was lying on my desk. I quickly tried to move my left arm. It functioned fine.  
Just a dream.  
Was there a message in this dream? Was there some sort of reality in my dream? Mengsk did not cure him; I did not jump out wanting to hear the story. That did not happen at all.  
I looked at my wristwatch. 12:30, still a half hour till Ben showed up to keep on telling me his story. He had left 10 minutes early yesterday. Not only was he 20 minutes late, but also left 10 minutes early.  
The door to my room opened, ever so slightly, and I saw a familiar face staring back at me. I jumped, and fell off my desk. Crashing against the fabric rug, I grabbed my glasses on the table to my left. Getting on my knees, I sat up, and got back into my chair.  
"Sorry…" Said Ben, and walked into the room. His pants were new ones… the tag still on them. They were black jeans. He had a belt around them, and it was sagging. He had a white t-shirt tucked into it. It had a sort of sweaty look to it. Ben also wore the black hat he had worn once before. He wore it frontward this time, and there were words on it. 'No Pain, No Gain' it said.  
"No problem. It's nice your early. Making up for the lost time yesterday?"  
"No."  
"Well," I began. "Why are you here so early?"  
Ben looked at me and laughed. Today was not a friendly day like on Day 2. This was once again, an evil day, like yesterday. A scary day. "You think I have anywhere else to go in the afternoon? I'm a blind crazy guy. No one likes me. All I've got is you, and I scare the buh-jeezes outta youse. Not much for me, eh? All I got is mah radio."  
"I guess…" I mumbled. Ben laughed shrilly again, and sat on the patient couch. He took off his shoes, and lay down on it today.  
"Well, should I keep goin'?" He asked me. I nodded, and he continued from yesterday. "Well lets see… the infested terran… oh, right. So anyways, it was running at us. The familiar face of my old friend Mark lay on top of the Zerg body, all the time, the eyes staring at me. Finally I had a bit of sense in my body, and lifted my gun. I shot at those eyes first. I don't know why. The eyes seemed to beckon to me. They pleaded to not kill it. I did.  
"My blaring guns seemed to knock some sense into my other squad members, and they joined in rather quickly. All 12 of us, pumping lead into that thing. Without its eyes it was no longer human at all. It was okay to blast its fucking head off. No more eyes, equals, no more human. The thing flipped around in its infested battle armor, and soon enough it exploded with half human-half corn syrup-like blood. When it exploded it was about four feet away from us. We killed it though. It didn't explode because it got too close. Although I don't even know if that's how they really attack… It's just rumor.  
"Anyhoo, we finished that sucka off, but none of us had anything left in us. We were too flabbergasted at what had just been in front of us. Wouldn't you?"  
Ben stopped and stared at me. Those eyes… Those eyes scared me. They used to make me pity him. This wasn't pity anymore. This was fear.  
"Well?" He asked me again. "Wouldn't you?"  
"Yes…"  
"Okay then." Ben cleared his throat, and went on. "What ever Ray's plan was, he had lost it. We had forgotten everything we had seen before that moment… except for me. I got this super memory over here. Alright, so anyway we were stuck. We decide to make our way back to that giant 1-mile long 1-mile wide room. That was the best place for us.  
"We went on walking down that tunnel forever it seemed. I don't know how long. But we got there. The room seemed like heaven to us at that moment. Why? Because we now had little places to rest. Seriously, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. There were these little ditches in the rocks, where we could just lay down, and enjoy the night.  
"Anyhoo, we rested there for two days, and then we decided to send 2 guys down to get some water. We were running low. JJ and some guy, I believe his name was Kris, offered to go down.  
"It was a good days walk to and fro, so we gave them a day… Then two. Then three. None of us wanted to believe they were dead. We wouldn't believe it. Not until we got proof. So, after an hour or two of debating it, we all decided to jump on down, and go to the ol' Lurker hole, and see where they were.  
"We went down, a days walk down there, including that tunnel that was really small… you know that never ending one from before? The seven hour one? It felt like hell to go through it again… not that we had to go through the whole thing before we found JJ and Kris. They were both dead, laying face down on the sharp rocks. Wasn't even a Zerg, just an accident. One of them must've tripped, and knocked the other one down. They fell on the sharp rocks, and it ripped open JJ's skull. Kris was still alive, with only a chest wound, but he was dead about four minutes up the tunnel. He had tried.  
"This had showed us that even little things could end it all. We had to be careful around or not around the Zerg. Even the rock could kill us. It just was another thing to remind us how fragile life was.  
"Not that we needed that reminder, considering all the death around us. So here we were, ten guys. We were all screwed. No chance in hell to live this fucker out."  
"That's a predicament." I commented. Ben stared at me, without blinking.  
"Shut the fuck up David." He said. He gave me a look so horrid, I had to look away. The shadows from my desk glinted around on the wall. What time was it? 1:27pm. Only three more minutes? No way! I had to hear more.  
"Sorry…" I mumbled. "Go on."  
"No."  
"What?" I asked, baffled. "What do you mean; No?"  
"Just what I fucking said." Ben almost screamed to me.  
"Ben? Remember what I said about the swears? It bothers me and-"  
"OH IM SORRY!" Ben screamed. "DO FUCKING SWEARS FUCKING BOTHER YOU? WELL GET THE FUCK OVER IT YOU LITTLE SHITFACE DUNG ASS MOTHER FUCKER!"  
I clasped my hands over my ears… I began not listening. No…  
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! YOU GONNA CRY?"  
No…no… Dad…  
"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"  
Dad… no…  
"FUCK SHIT BITCH!"  
Nooooo! Dad… No!  
"FU-"  
That was it.  
I jumped up from my chair and thrashed myself over the desk. I clasped my hands around Ben's neck. Ben, completely caught off guard, made a screeching noise. I squeezed harder. He yelped. I used all my strength to strangle him.  
"That All You Got!" Ben screamed between breaths. He reached his hands over to my lamp, picked it up, and bashed it over my head. A spurt of blood squirted from my forehead and hit the wall. At the sight of my own blood dripping down my wall, everything got black.

I woke up, about an hour later, still on the couch. I sat there, looking towards my desk. The blood was gone. My head hurt like hell. Ben sat on the chair at my desk.  
"Now tell me, Mr. David, what exactly is your last name?"  
"F-Frazier…" I stuttered. What was happening?  
"Good… Now what happened to you as a child?" Ben almost laughed out. He stare at me, laying on the couch. I was only semi-conscious.  
"My… my Daddy…" I cried.  
"What happened to your dad?" He asked me, as if he were the Psychiatrist.  
"Dad…" I rubbed my eyes, and breathed heavily… At the moment I had no idea where I was. "Daddy… The guy… He said 'Fuck you Stan! Fuck you! You little fucker! I'm gonna fuck you up good.' What does fuck mean?"  
Ben looked at me as if I had three heads… my voice had died down to a sort of child's voice. "Keep going, David."  
"And then the guy he wanted my Daddy to give him money… lots of money, like a billion bajillion dollars. My Daddy said he didn't have dat much money…"  
"Keep going."  
"And…and then the guy grabbed me and pushed me inside a closet all the while screaming 'Your Daddy's goin to hell yah little fucker! Learn from your Daddy's mistake, and don't be a shit head, will yah? Hahaha…' And then he shut the closet…"  
I paused. What was I doing? Common sense hit me like a sack of potatoes and I jumped up.  
"What do you think you're doing?" I screamed to Ben. Ben just sat there as if he owned the place.  
"What do I think I'm doing? HA! I think I'm getting some answers David ol' boy. Hahaha!" Ben stared at me, with his bloodshot eyes. The veins on his forehead bulged foreword and seemed to be screaming at me, angrily. "David, my stories up. The question now, is what do you have to say!"  
I looked around frantically. What was I supposed to do? What was going on?  
"Guards!" I screamed. "Guards! I need you! Help!" No help came.  
"What do you think I did while you were out?" Ben said, sneering at me. He opened a drawer in my desk, and pulled out a small but lethal handgun.  
"No!" I yelled. I looked toward the door, and ran to it. I grabbed the smooth metal handle, and yanked it open. I jumped outside the room and looked outside. There they were. My two faithful guards. Dead. There was a bullet hole in one's head, going straight through the glass part. The second one had two bullet holes in him. One around his cheek, the other dead center in his forehead. I re-entered the room slowly.  
"Hahaha," Ben laughed. "You're smarter than I thought. I had thought you were going to run. I woulda shot you." Ben smiled, open mouthed. Not a happy smile, a deadly smile. I wouldn't have been surprised to see blood dripping down his front teeth.  
"How'd you get that g-gun…?" I queried. Ben looked at me, sneering. His nose was bleeding. This time when he smiled open mouthed, blood DID drip down his teeth.  
"That's not the question, David. The question is, what happened next in your little story?"  
I looked at him, breathing heavy. My heart was beating like a drum in my ears, and I could barely hear anything else. Ben was still smiling, eyebrows down, evilly.  
"What happened next… was… he… He pulled out a knife and slit my Daddy's throat…" I cried. Ben walked over to me, from the chair, and sat down on his knees next to me. He was smiling, blood on his mouth.  
"Cry little boy. And then burn in Hell."  
I looked up, and Ben smacked the handle of the gun on the back of my head. I felt the bump, and everything got black again.

-Day 6-

Opening my eyes, I found myself on the floor of my room. Ben was gone. There was a piece of paper on my desk, taped. I felt the bump on the back of my head. It was huge. The bump on my forehead was no better.  
I jumped up, and ran toward the door to my left. I ripped it open, and looked out, down the hall. The guards were gone. I looked straight in front of me, too the closet. I could sense the bodies of those two men, laying in there.  
The door opened, and to my surprise, no one entered. It blew open, and hit the wall next to it with a sort of light 'clank'.  
Slowly, I approached the door… almost tip toeing. Last night had scared me half to death. Ben was a crazy guy. Someone not even I could help. I reached the door. The blue metallic, was soft and cold on my skin, as I touched it. I looked outside to the desert area. Three Barracks's were training marines and firebats and ghosts. One command center with holding the Emperor himself, lay off to the east a bit, just out of view. About two dozen supply depot's encircled the Barracks's.  
I sighed. I had to tell Mengsk what had happened. My first foot outside. A single stream of sweat went down my cheek, as I stepped outside, onto the wooden stairs. The stairs were only three steps. One step. Two step. Three…  
"Enjoying your visit outside cry-baby?" Came the voice of Ben from my left.  
I almost screamed, but held it back. I tilted my head left, and sure enough, there sat Ben. Same clothes as yesterday. He was looking at me, carefully. "Now, little boy, you weren't planning on telling little ol' Mengsk were you? Now, I can't allow that. Oh no."  
Ben laughed. The laugh made me shiver, and I almost ran, full pace, back inside. I grabbed the metallic handle, and slammed the door shut.  
BOOM!  
Something blew the door handle into pieces. It almost exploded, and it flew half way across the waiting lobby. It slammed into the back, wall. I fell back, leaning on the wall behind me. The door slowly opened, with out even needing a push. Ben entered, looking around the room, smiling. That evil smile. Although, he wasn't really looking… He was blind.  
"Bad, Bad boy, David." Ben laughed again. "Now. Get up, and let me finish MY story. I heard yours. Now you hear mine."  
"O-Okay…" I said. Not just because it was he, who was in control. But, because I really, truly wanted to know the story of Ben. The amazing journey of the amazing Ben. The inevitable force of the amazing Ben. The shrill horror, …of the amazing Ben.  
"Then lets go into your infamous room, shall we?" Ben asked, a shadow corrupting the bottom half of his face. Ben, lowered his hand, for me to take. Slowly, and carefully, I grabbed his hand. He lifted me up by my arm, and almost dragged me into my little room.  
"Get the fuck in your chair." Ben told me. I did as he said, and he put the gun away in his pocket. The blood was still on his face, dried now. He had never wiped it off.  
"Now," Ben said, smiling that horrible smile. "Where did I leave off?"  
"I don't… know…" I whispered. The air in the room seemed to be filled with corruption. Gunshots were blasting off in the distance.  
"What was that?" I asked, looking at the dried blood on Ben's face.  
"That," Ben sneered. "Were gun shots. I betcha they're here for me." Ben laughed.  
The white wooden door to my room, suddenly was jerked open and two marines, fully armored and holding Gauss rifles jumped into the room.  
"Freeze!" One yelled, holding the rifle at eyes length towards Ben's sick and demented head.  
"Ah, well didn't I see this coming, David? Think about that. I sensed them coming. Think about that David."  
The two marines ran to Ben sharply and grabbed him under the arms. One marine pulled out his hand gun from his pocket. The marine slipped the gun into his own pocket and began dragging the amazing Ben. The other marine stayed and looked at me.  
"It's okay. We saw him outside with a gun last night. We saw him dispose of the guards bodies. We came in today after preparations." The marine told me. "Mengsk will be sending you a new patient tomorrow."  
No, I thought, This can't be. I didn't want to hear someone else's story. I wanted to here the amazing tale, of the amazing Ben.  
Days 7-9 later…

-Day 7-

"He WHAT?" I exclaimed through the small black portable phone. The phone was slightly old, a 2 year old model but it worked just fine. It barely ever rang, but yet today it sat there up on the shelf and decided to ring and light up its little red light bulb. When I had answered it a voice all-too-familiar had appeared.  
"He WHAT?" I repeated a bit shocked. It was Ben on the other line. He sounded as if his nose was stuffy, and he sounded like he had a major cramp.  
"I said," Ben said through the phone, "That Mengsk released me and I'm coming back to you baby boy! I don't know why… I guess he gets something out of it, a bribe maybe… I've gotta lotta friends in dirty business you know!"  
"I never would have guessed…" I mumbled sarcastically. Ben laughed a sharp broken glass laugh and then said:  
"You know, David ol' boy, I think you're my only friend who aint in dirt business."  
"I'm not your friend."  
The phone fell silent. All I could hear over the phone was Ben's breath. He had become almost dead silent. After a moment he finally replied.  
"Now listen here you little shit head, I'm not up to dealing with you today." I could almost feel his grin on the other side of the phone. "But I guess I'm going to have too. Unless you want to die of course. That's not a threat, only Mengsks orders. You havta psycho mumbo jumbo me baby! Or you get a few lashes, and then you get to die! Sound fun?" The grin on the other side of the phone seemed to rip through the phone line and smack me in the head. I could sense his loving this. He was having fun.  
"You know," I commented. "I'd rather die then listen to your bullshit. Its all a bunch of lies. I know it is."  
Ben replied almost instantly and almost cutting me off, and he spoke extremely fast. "You know nothing of fear. My story is more true then the fact that you and I exist. YOU know NOTHING of fear."  
I was about to speak, but he cut me off. "You. Know. Nothing. Of. Fear."  
The way he said those five words seemed to jump out at me. Those five words were like sharp knives gouging my insides. They seemed to rip me from inside out.  
"What do you mean I-"  
"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF FEAR!" Ben shouted at me through the phone, and then when I tried to retaliate all I heard was a dial tone.  
He had hung up.  
Tomorrow, I thought, Ben returns tomorrow.  
Of course although I resented it, I semi-consciously had wanted… no, needed him to return. The story called for me, it was undeniable. The story reached out with its frigid hands and grasped me by the shoulders, seemingly pulling me into the inside.  
The story returned tomorrow.  
The amazing Ben. Returned. Tomorrow.  
Amazing? Why was it that I called him amazing? Was I slowly becoming delusional? Or…?

-Day 8-  
My white door seemed to open by itself. Slowly creaking away at its un-greased hinges. The familiar yet terrifying face of Ben Broulteski entered the room yet again, and as usual, the happy in the room sat up from its seat, bowed down to Ben and left the room, ashamed to have been there.  
Ben looked at me with his blind stare. He was grinning from ear to ear, a shadow corrupting his face making him seem…  
"Good to be back!" Ben interrupted my thought, "Damn good! You happy there David ol' boy?"  
"No."  
Ben looked at me still grinning. "Oh aint you a little lover boy?"  
I sighed deeply. "Please stop calling me names…"  
"Oh okay slick. I'll remember that chief. I'll never again call you a nickname, ol' boy."  
Ben laughed his broken glass laugh, and continued. "Now, David, where exactly did I leave off?"  
"Er…" I racked my head in thought. It seemed so long ago. "The infested terran… um… Oh yah, when JJ and Kris died, by accident not even by the Zerg."  
"Oh, yes. Alright then, you ready to hear the rest of the tale of the amazing Ben? That's what you call me right?"  
I looked open mouthed at Ben. My eyes seemed to pop out, and I gaped. Had I ever called him that out loud? No… Lucky guess? Maybe. Maybe not.  
"Alright, so, anyway, here's what happened next. I can't remember if I already said this but we went back to the 1-mile wide 1-mile long cave.  
"So Anyhoo, We were all completely brain dead. Ray McVries was outta ideas and everyone else was just an idiot, even me!"  
Ben smiled, and I frowned back to him.  
"Oh come on you Brown Frowny! Turn the frown upside down!"  
"No."  
"Oh, go give yourself a blow job… Okay, where was I… Oh right, brain dead. We-"  
For a second I cut him off from my mind. He knew I was frowning. How did he know I was frowning if he was blind?  
"David pay attention and stop thinking about my blindness!" Ben hollered to me. It took me three point 1 milliseconds to realize what was wrong with what he just said.  
"Ben you little grass smoking dickwad! What are you?"  
"Now that's not very nice to call me! I-"  
"WHAT ARE YOU?"  
"You really wanna know?" Ben smiled. A smile so horribly deep it scoured into my flesh with its coldness. "If you really want to know, you better start listening."  
"I'll listen when you start telling."  
"Well aren't you getting fussy?"  
"Ben, go eat my load. What are you?"  
"You're changing David. Ever since your break down, your changing."  
"BEN TELL ME!"  
"Assertiveness, I like that in a man!" Ben laughed so coldly this time, I felt like I was going to vomit. Something had changed. I wasn't me. I was… Ben?  
"Now David ol' boy, you are not becoming me. Hahaha, You only WISH that!" Ben was laughing uncontrollably now. Every time he spoke his laughter interrupted his words. "You-hahaha-are so pathetic! David you need to-hahaha-start paying more attention. Haven't you realized what I am yet? Don't you know? Who can read your mind? Huh?"  
A ghost. I didn't say it but I didn't have to."Guess again buck-o!"  
The second answer I had was too horrible to imagine. Plus, it wasn't possible. He wouldn't be here right now.  
"Hahaha, your right, it isn't possible, I can't be an infested terran. I'm not Zerg either you know. And no, I'm not Protoss that's just silly."  
"What are you?"  
"LISTEN TO ME! You will know! Just listen you little shitter! L-I-S-S-E-N!"  
"Its l-i-s-t-e-n, there's a silent T…"  
"Correct my spelling all you want you shithead, but you have to listen to me, if you want to know anything!"  
"Well apparently we've spent too much time talking about this because we're out of time!"  
Ben looked up to the clock, then to me.  
"Ha," Ben sneered. "What did I tell you? You can't stop my mind baby! I've still got five minutes!"  
I looked toward the clock. No, he was wrong. It was exactly 1:30. so he wasn't always right…  
"I AM always right stupid!" Ben laughed, "The blackout you had the other day, you never fixed your clock dumb ass. It's five minutes fast."  
I sighed. Five more minutes.  
"Yeah! You bet there's five! Now you best start paying attention dipshit!"  
Ben cleared his throat and began.  
"We were all stuck in that 1-mile long 1-mile wide room. Nothing to do but sleep and talk. Ray McVries the most sane of us, was slowly becoming the least sane. He was talking to himself, like one of them freaky deaky people in movies or in old peoples homes. He kept talking to this imaginary guy named Phillip K. Cornette. I specifically remember that name because he kept yelling at him all night, never shutting up. He'd be yelling, 'PHILLIP K. CORNETTE GET OUT OF MY FUCKING FACE! PHILLIP K. CORNETTE DON'T YOU GET ANY CLOSER! PHILLLLLLL! PHILLLIIIPP! KAYYYYY!COOOOOORRRRNETTTTTEE!!!!' The faggot wouldn't shut up. You know what I did one night when he was being quiet and everyone was asleep?"  
I didn't want to know… But I did. The story called to me.  
"I killed him. I killed my best goddamn friend! MY BEST GODDAMN friend David! BEST! Can you believe that? I took out my knife and spilled his blood all over the place. I placed the knife in some other guys hands, and smothered blood on his hands. I set him up, David. I set him up.  
"We killed him for murder the next day. I got away with murder. Just like I did when I killed your guards. I got away with MURDER." Ben was almost laughing again. "Murder baby! You can't even imagine the adrenaline. It was almost like a 'hi'. You ever did any drugs?"  
The question was personal, but I couldn't keep anything from him if I tried.  
"Yes," I said, sighing. "I snorted cocaine when I was 14, until I was 16. I quit and never got it again. I discovered what I wanted to be and here I am today. It was the addiction that got me, not the 'hi'. I usually just got paranoid…"  
"Heyy it was just a question," Ben commented, "I didn't ask for your life story.  
"So two people were dead because of me. Eight men left, and it was soon to be four. Because about two days later a pack of seven Zerglings and one Hydralisk decided to pay us a visit. The elimination of the Zerglings was easy enough. Our Gauss rifles sent them to hell in a minute. (It took'em about a minute and a half to get to us!)  
"It was the Hydralisk who fucked us over. One Hydralisk killed four men. Believe it? It was a bit more complicated then that.  
"You see what happened was when the Hydralisk got close enough, we had just finished off the last Zergling. It didn't have a single gun shot wound yet. We all began pumping lead into it. It fired off two spikes, one heading toward some man named Fred, the other toward some guy named Shay. Fred was struck in the chest, and Shay got a full blast of spikes into his face. His nose exploded sending blood all over us, and it ripped through the back of his skull, almost decapitating him. His teeth were lain on the ground near my feet, and his entire body was limp on the ground. Fred, screaming in utter pain, was then struck again by a Hydralisk spike. It went speeding straight into his gut, ripping him open. His intestines fell out and he was bleeding like a mofo. He looked down at his gory insides smoldering on the floor, and began screaming bloody murder. As this happened another spike got loaded into a fellow marine of mine. His name was Gerald Speckins. The spike got pumped into his right leg. He screamed and fell, pulling the trigger the whole time. The bullets went flying all over the place, and one hit this guys chin. I believe his name was Marcus. His chin just seemed to go flying off into the distance and he was left with no lower jaw. He had quickly pulled out a pistol and loaded a pack of lead into his brain. His brain squirted out all over Gerald and he screamed even more.  
"I finally got some sense into me and I cocked my Gauss rifle. I took aim at the Hydralisk's head and sent 28 lead slugs straight into it's face. It's head rippled like a small explosion and erupted in gore. The body fell limp and it's acid blood began melting the rock beneath it. I looked over to the screaming Marcus, and the bedazzled Fred.  
"The other three men who were not hurt, Kyle, Devin, And Shawn I believe were their names, were all dumbfounded at the scene in front of us. One Hydralisk had just caused mass chaos. I raised my Gauss rifle at Fred's head and pulled the trigger. No one accused me of murder this time. It was common decency. He had no chance, and he was in immense pain. Another shot was heard behind me and I looked over. Marcus had shot himself as well. He knew he had no chance and was going to bleed to death. We were all reasonable honorable men, and knew when it was our time.  
"Just like I know I'm 1 minute late to leave."  
I spun my head out of the trance from within his story and looked at the clock. It read 1:36. Five minutes fast. He was 1 minute late to leave.  
"I'll keep it on tomorrow David. I promise. No more games, just story."  
"Deal."

-Day 9-

I woke up from my slumber in the middle of the night. The darkness swarmed around me unmercifully, spinning, spinning… I had a nightmare. At least, I think I did. I wasn't sure, it was blurry. I believe what I saw was Ben and I… I was in his story, taking the place of Fred, the man with his intestines falling out.  
Was it really a dream, or was it something else?  
I had felt the pain, or at least I think I did. It was so painful and so agonizing that I couldn't breath. I was screaming to much, and all the air was going outward in a spiral. I saw Ben raise his gun to me, and fire. I saw the bullet strike my forehead, and then I woke up.  
Was there some sort of message in this dream?  
Most likely.  
Yawning, I sat up from my soft patient couch. I grabbed some FaBreeze from one of my shelves and sprayed the couch with it a few times. I yawned again, then stretched, and went towards my desk, deep in thought.  
What did Ben mean, no games? Was he playing games with me… or my head?  
Did he give me that dream on purpose?

Ben popped his head in my room around 1:00, grinning as always, that evil grin.  
"Hello Ben." I said, taking a gulp from my coffee. Ben looked at my drink uncomfortably.  
"Don't I get a drink?" He asked, looking gloomily.  
"No."  
"Well why not, you meany bo beany!" Ben laughed. Why did he keep using baby talk…?  
"I said no Ben."  
"Fine, be that way! No games today remember? Yes, you do remember, I can sense it. Anyhoo, lets get on shall we-"  
"I have a question first Ben."  
"What?"  
I paused momentarily. This question had been sulking at the back of my mind for the last three days. "Ben, if you are this… this… what ever you are, why is it, that on dat 1 and 3 you had those breakdowns?"  
Ben smiled to me and looked casual. "It was all act. You see I had to gain your trust first David. And to do so, I had to be the crazy scared guy. It worked did it not? Day 2 was my favorite. Reading your mind when you thought I was friendly was soooo funny!"  
It was all an act.  
"Yep, all an act!" Ben laughed again, his sharp broken glass laugh. "So, do you want me to continue or not, David ol' boy?"  
"Continue, as always."  
"Yah," Ben said, his smile slowly going down. "You've always loved my tale. The amazing tale of the amazing Ben! Bet that sounds like a fable, eh?"  
I nodded.  
"Okay then, I left off when the Hydralisk attacked us, and the guy suicided… Okay. So the four of us, I believe I said that there names were Kyle, Devin, and Shawn, were just completely flabbergasted. Wouldn't you be? We had just lost four men to one single Hydralisk. That was a fuck-up we couldn't ever allow again!  
"We weren't quite sure how it had happened. I guess when the guys got hit, the ones shooting stopped to see what all the screaming was about. I did. I fucked up. Of course now, I'm almost happy I did, because if I didn't… well a few things wouldn't have happened that did."  
Once again, the story went on, and continued. The amazing tale, of the amazing Ben. The story that pulled me onward like a roller coaster and then fell way down, but would rise almost immediately and take me by surprise. That's what this story was… a roller coaster.  
"Anyway we stayed there for… Jesus, one week, two? We eventually ran out of water and that guy Shawn went for some water. He came back the next day, with blood all down his back, and he was limping. His battle armor was almost gone. We asked what happened and the guy responded '2 Zerglings caught be off guard from behind. One hit my leg, I pumped some lead into its head, the other got my back. I whirled around in a semi circle and it went flying off me into one of them s

harp rocks. It got stuck and was screaming the whole time I was on my way back. I wouldn't be surprised of its still screamin'!' But, he was alive. We didn't lose another man until another week went by.  
"It was Devin. He shot himself. In the middle of a conversation on how tog et out, he just plucked out his pistol and let a load into his skull. The poor bastard gave up, and lemme tell you Dave, I was close to givin' too, after that performance.  
"But I didn't. I juss kept on goin down the road to hell, as they say. I tell ya, it WAS a road to hell. The entire time I kept feeling like the Devil was gonna hop on up and take a bite off my dick. Ah, maybe that wasn't the best way to put it… I dunno, mah words are gettin all crazy lately."Anyhoo, the three of us, Kyle, Shawn and I, were getting crazy. Just like old Ray McVries. Kyle was talking to himself an awful lot and Shawn was just getting all nasty and pussy from his wound, and his mental and physical capacities were low. And me, I think I was the most sane. In fact, now that I think of it, I was running off adrenaline. I was like an adrenaline druggy. I think it was the only thing keeping me sane!"  
"You're sane?" I asked, sarcastically. Ben looked at me with such force I looked away.  
"You best shut up boy." Ben said, staring coldly at me. I've always wondered how he can manage that cold look of pure hatred. I couldn't do it if I tried. "Now, shall I continue?"  
"Yes."  
"Alright. Now this is when things start getting… well… I don't know exactly how to put it. But the story changes now. A lot.  
"You see, the next time a pack of Zerglings came we just sat there. The little shitters screamed their shitty little heads off, but we just sat there. There was about 12 or so of them, and I just wasn't up for it. 'Take me now and get it the fuck over with!' I had said to them, as they neared me. Didn't do no good. They didn't kill any of us. They stopped right in front of us. They like just halted and stared confused at us. I think it was that they did not sense fear and they were wondering how… no, why… we weren't afraid. That's when something horrible happened. That's when the story gets… graphic.  
"You see out from one of the holes came one of them air Zerg lady things… Um, I believe we call'em Queens. Just floating above us. this thing looked like someone had just taken one giant shit and thrown it into the air, I tell you what. It had these little arm things over its mouth, like that brain bug in that movie… um… Star Ship Troopers, you know that classic?"  
"Yah."  
"Well that's what it looked like. Sept it was flying. The first thing this flying piece of shit did was spit something at Kyle. It looked like a flying cow patty I tell you what. It went soaring over our heads straight at Kyle. Kyle didn't even notice it until it hit him. This little black thing hit his stomach with such force, he nearly ripped in half.  
"Around near his belly button, his stomach ripped open and his insides could be seen from where I was standing. I almost threw up. The little black thing ripped in half as well, into these two little bugs. They were tiny. They started eating Kyle's insides and this time I did vomit. By the time I put my head back up, Kyle was almost gone and the little things were almost as big as a Zergling. I think they're called Broodlings.  
"Anyhoo, those Broodlings went over to Shawn and instead of eating him like I thought they would, the grabbed him by the legs and dragged him off. One Broodling let go and ran over to me. He grabbed my left leg and pulled me along too. I started to struggle and a Zergling ran over to me. He stuck his goddamn purple scythe right into my damn stomach and I blacked out."  
When Ben said that he lifted up his shirt a bit to show the scar. There was more than one scar. There were about three.  
"I woke up about an hour later, for all I know it was 3 years later though, but I think it was an hour, and I was laying on something gross and purple. It felt like slime. There were all these little black stripes along the purple, and it seemed to be alive. The ground was alive. It was like a bunch of suction cups pulling me down. I was stuck."  
I stared at Ben wide-eyed. Was this story about to go where I thought it was?  
"Oh it is…" Ben smiled. "and next to me lay Shawn. They were doing him first."  
I nearly fell over in my seat. My mind almost exploded with thoughts of what happened next. Was Ben a Zerg? Ben Zergling Broulteski? Was-  
"No silly, I told you I'm not a Zerg! And I'm not infested. But however I can tell you that time is up. See you tomorrow."  
Day ten later…

-Day 10-  
-The Climax-

"Nice to see you again." Ben said, entering through my door. I looked at him, with bloodshot eyes. I hadn't gotten any sleep that night, all night the image of Ben was a reckon to deal with. All night, I had seen his face, staring so coldly at me, I felt like it was winter and I was rolling in the snow, naked.  
"I wish I could say the same…" I mumbled. Ben looked at me and sneered.  
"So, I see I kept myself into your thoughts."  
"Shut up. I'm sick of you reading my mind. Stop it."  
"I'm not reading your mind… That, like I said, will come into the story later. For now you must listen."  
"I'm sick of listening Ben."  
"Well maybe you should listen harder. Shouldn't it be clear to you? Think of the way you've acted, the way you've responded. Ponder about the other nine days we've seen one another. Try and think, David. Think. It should be clearing your thoughts now. The idea of truth. Do you know the truth?"  
I knew no truth.  
"Oh, well you should. And soon enough, you will. Now, you just have to listen."  
I looked into Ben's cold eyes. The eyes of something evil.  
"I'm not as evil as I may seem. I'm trying to help you. All you need to do is understand. You need to know."  
"Tell me and I will know!" I shouted. "I'm sick of these mind games! I'm FUCKING sick of it Ben! Tell me now, explain what happened!"  
"Shut up! SHUT UP! Let me finish my story… the story that seemingly calls to you. Haven't you ever wondered why? Why it calls to you? Shouldn't it be clear to you by now? I surely thought it would."  
"Just finish the story…" I said, ending the mind games. "Please, just finish the story."  
"Fine," Ben sneered. "Be that way. You'll know soon enough."  
There was a moment of pause before Ben picked up his story where he had left off.  
"Now," He began, "we - as in Shawn and I - were both laid down on the Zerg floor, preferably a sunken colony. There were little things jotting from the purple slime that were being used almost like rope, to rap around our ankles, wrists, and neck. I could turn my head around enough to see Shawn, and the gore that followed was so disturbingly gory, that I almost looked away. There were two Zerglings and a Queen, that was now laying on the ground. The Zerglings were tearing him up, his stomach unbuckled like a belt.  
"His stomach skin lay off too the side, and he was so scared that his nerves must have not been responding right because he wasn't screaming at all-"  
My thoughts interrupted him. It seemed like I already knew what was going to happen next, word by word.  
"Then," I said interrupting him. A new thought appearing in my mind. A new beginning. Something wasn't right. "The queen opened its mouth and let out this greenish goo. The goo eased in through his stomach, and was soon rummaging inside of him, disintegrating his insides. Soon enough he looked just like the Infested Terran I had seen."  
I? What made me say I?  
"Now you're getting it!" Ben laughed heartily. "It's all coming back to you now huh?"Oh my God. Was I there? Am I Ben… or… what was going on?  
"Ahk," Ben sighed. "I guess you're not getting it. Still not pumping anything in the ol' noggin huh?"  
I continued what I had been saying. "Only Jacob's eyes were still Terran…" Jacob? Why did I say Jacob?  
"Good! Good! It IS coming back!" Ben laughed. It was raining outside, I could see the lightning. The rain pounded on the roof, suddenly audible. It sounded like a drum beat. 'Thump bump bump bump, thump bump bump bump'  
"And then Jacob sat up… he walked toward the exit of the room, as the rope from the creep colony subsided…" Didn't Ben say it was a Sunken colony? "Jacob walked off. His eyes pleading his body not to move foreword, yet his legs bumped the floor with its roughness. He exited from my view…"  
My?  
"Then they walked toward me…"  
Me?  
"I began screaming… pleading with them to please not…"  
I?  
"The Zerglings began to rip my skin off… and then… A light. A bright light and a heavy explosion."  
Oh my God, I thought. What was going on? Ben was smiling horribly. The lighting flashed again and the light flickered out as a huge roar of thunder slapped my face. The shadows around me danced as I continued. More thunder slapped the air, and more lightning lit the sky. "Fire rapidly began burning my legs… It stopped and that's when I realized a firebat was standing above me, and a Medic was too…"  
I stopped, pausing momentarily, as another clap of thunder blistered through the air.  
"That's all. And then I remember this… I remember everything fading away… Gone. A new life."  
Ben laughed again, and a shadow went over his face.  
"So do you understand now, David?"  
"Is my name really David?"  
"I'm not sure, Fred. You tell me."  
I looked at him. Those cold eyes… He was still not telling me something. "What aren't you telling me?"  
"What I am perhaps? I'm not sure."  
"You're an infested Terran! I know you are! That was your story was it not?"  
"No, Fred. It was yours."  
"WHAT?" The room splashed another form of light from the outside, and the room began spinning.  
"Think about it Fred. Your whole life. Do you even remember anything?" Ben's voice was somewhere, but I couldn't see him… I couldn't see anything, it was all black. "Think about it Fred!"  
"MY NAME'S DAVID!" I screamed. I was getting dizzy now, and all I could see was blackness.  
"Fred your crazy. Crazy little Fred. Haha! No Fred, your not David, and I'm not Ben!"  
"Then who are you?"  
"No one. I'm not real Fred. Think about it. When you retained the story you spoke as 'I' not 'you'."  
"So I'm you?"  
"What did I just say? I'm not real. I'm just sort of… an unconscious state of mind. Something sent out here to make sure you knew. You know. Think about it Fred. Did you really act like a Psychiatrist. You never really helped me did you? You just sat there commenting on my story. A story that pulled you in for reasons you could not comprehend. And now you know, its your story Fred. Just yours."  
"Then WHAT ARE YOU?"  
"NOTHING!"  
I heard thunder but saw no lightning as for some reason I could no longer see."The affects of the Zerglings ripping you open," Ben began, "Caused nerve damages that affected your eyes. You're blind Fred. You have to realize who you really are."  
"IM DAVID!"  
"Stop it right now Fred!" Ben screamed. "All that you think you know is not real. I'm not real! David Frazier does not exist! He's something you're mind decided to put in."  
What was he talking about?  
"And now, Fred!" Ben laughed/screamed. He was about to finish everything. The entire thing. "Fred, it's time for you to wake up!"  
"What?"  
"Wake up Fred! WAKE UP!"  
I felt dizzy again, and my eyes burned with pain, as if they were lit on fire.  
"WAKE UP!"  
I am awake!  
"WAKE UP!"  
What do you mean?  
"WAKE THE HELL UP!"

The medic gently pushed me inside the room. I didn't know what kind of room… I couldn't see, but I had to move my head around, I had to know what was going on. I was just preparing for something to jump me.  
I could fell the calmness of the man. I could sense him sitting on some sort of desk.  
"Please," He said to me, "Your Fred right? Fred Broulteski?"  
I nodded gently and quickly sat down.


End file.
